elf, "penetrate the mystery that
hangs about this most strange and inexplicable being. I will have an
interview with him, not in hostility, for I forgive him the evil he has
done me, but with a kindly spirit; and I will ask him to confide in me."

Charles, therefore, did not keep so close upon the heels of the vampyre
as to excite any suspicions of his intention to follow him; but he
waited by the garden paling long enough not only for Varney to get some
distance off, but long enough likewise to know that the pistol which had
been fired at the doctor had produced no real bad effects, except
singing some curious tufts of hair upon the sides of his face, which the
doctor was pleased to call whiskers.

"I thought as much," was Charles's exclamation when he heard the
doctor's voice. "It would have been strikingly at variance with all
Varney's other conduct, if he had committed such a deliberate and
heartless murder."

Then, as the form of the vampyre could be but dimly seen, Charles ran on
for some distance in the direction he had taken, and then paused again;
so that if Varney heard the sound of footsteps, and paused to listen
they had ceased again probably, and nothing was discernible.

In this manner he followed the mysterious individual, if we may really
call him such, for above a mile; and then Varney made a rapid detour,
and took his way towards the town.

He went onwards with wonderful precision now in a right line, not
stopping at any obstruction, in the way of fences, hedges, or ditches,
so that it took Charles some exertion, to which, just then, he was
scarcely equal, to keep up with him.

At length the outskirts of the town were gained, and then Varney paused,
and looked around him, scarcely allowing Charles, who was now closer to
him than he had been, time to hide himself from observation, which,
however, he did accomplish, by casting himself suddenly upon the ground,
so that he could not be detected against the sky, which then formed a
back ground to the spot where he was.

Apparently satisfied that he had completely now eluded the pursuit, if
any had been attempted, of those whom he had led in such a state of
confusion, the vampyre walked hastily towards a house that was to let,
and which was only to be reached by going up an avenue of trees, and
then unlocking a gate in a wall which bounded the premises next to the
avenue. But the vampyre appeared to be possessed of every facility for
effecting an ent